Qualcomm’s FLO TV launches gadget for watching TV on the go

Qualcomm’s FLO TV launches gadget for watching TV on the go

Qualcomm’s FLO TV division is launching a gadget to deliver live mobile TV service for people on the run.

The FLO TV Personal Television will play TV that is available through Qualcomm’s own dedicated mobile TV network. The dedicated device will not be a phone; its… Continue Reading

Analog is dead! Long live digital TV!

Analog is dead! Long live digital TV!

All hail, all hail. Digital TV has arrived. Today is the day broadcasters nationwide shut off their analog TV signals and replace them with digital TV.

Most of the nation has converted to some form of digital TV, but an estimated 2.8 million households are still… Continue Reading

Smart phone demand drives Qualcomm to raise financial estimates

Smart phone demand drives Qualcomm to raise financial estimates

Strong demand for smart phones has prompted high-end mobile chip maker Qualcomm to upgrade its revenue and income targets for the third quarter.

This is a big deal since most other categories of component makers are still have troubles because of the recession. Smart phones are… Continue Reading

Qualcomm’s live mobile TV service goes nationwide on Friday

Qualcomm’s live mobile TV service goes nationwide on Friday

Qualcomm’s live mobile TV service, FLO TV, goes national on Friday as the digital TV transition frees airwaves for new technologies.

San Diego-based mobile tech company Qualcomm said the service can now reach more than 200 million potential viewers, who can use cell phones to watch… Continue Reading

Nvidia trumpets success of its Tegra cell phone processors

Nvidia trumpets success of its Tegra cell phone processors

Nvidia is becoming a real player in portable mobile devices as the industry embraces its Tegra processors. The company is announcing today that some of the world’s biggest gadget manufacturers are designing mobile devices using the Tegra chips.

And the interesting thing is, the first major… Continue Reading

Roundup: Pleo is dead, Twitter spreads swine flu, Google Earth solves plane crash and more

Roundup: Pleo is dead, Twitter spreads swine flu, Google Earth solves plane crash and more

Here’s all the latest action:

Verizon iPhone in the works — Apple and Verizon have been talking about launching an iPhone for the Verizon network as early as next year. USA Today has the story.

Tragedy strikes as Pleo, the magic dinosaur, is liquidated — Ugobe, maker of robotic… Continue Reading

Qualcomm will pay $891 million to Broadcom to settle patent disputes

Qualcomm will pay $891 million to Broadcom to settle patent disputes

Qualcomm will pay $891 million to Broadcom in a patent dispute settlement, the chip companies announced today.

The deal will settle all pending litigation between the companies worldwide. The companies were in a state of legal warfare over cell phone and other tech patents in the… Continue Reading

Car battery maker A123 scores $15M more from GE

Car battery maker A123 scores $15M more from GE

A123 Systems, maker of lithium-ion batteries — primarily for hybrid and electric cars — has nabbed another $15 million in funding from General Electric, marking the seventh time the conglomerate has invested in the capital-rich startup. This brings the total of A123’s recent round of… Continue Reading

Obopay scores $70M from Nokia for mobile payments

Obopay scores $70M from Nokia for mobile payments

Obopay, provider of a mobile service that lets people transfer money to one another through text messages, just received an investment from Nokia, estimated at $70 million. [Update: It turns out that not all of this money came from Nokia, as most people reported. There… Continue Reading

Wireless media delivery co. Digital Fountain sells to Qualcomm

Digital Fountain, a company specializing in sending media over wireless networks — especially streaming video — just sold to San Deigo goliath Qualcomm. It’s unclear whether the flagging economy played a role, but the Fremont, Calif. company may have been running short on funds. It… Continue Reading

Qualcomm cuts deals for its Mirasol displays

Qualcomm cuts deals for its Mirasol displays

Qualcomm made about eight different announcements at the Mobile World Congress today, but most interesting was news of the company’s progress Mirasol displays, which are based on a new way of capturing light with micro-electro-mechanical semiconductor (MEMS) technology.

Qualcomm said it’s working with LG Electronics to… Continue Reading

AMD sells cell phone graphics business to Qualcomm for $65 million

AMD sells cell phone graphics business to Qualcomm for $65 million

Advanced Micro Devices is doing what it can to keep from taking on water. Hurt by a bruising battle with Intel, AMD agreed to sell off its handheld graphics business and multimedia assets to Qualcomm for $65 million.

The move will give San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm… Continue Reading

Tela closes $5.5M to scale semiconductor manufacturing

Tela Innovations, a Campbell, Calif. firm working to streamline semiconductor designs and manufacturing, has added three investors to close a $5.5 million third round of funding, reports VentureWire. The new backers, Cadence Design Systems, KT Venture Group and Qualcomm, join past contributors Intel Capital, AsiaTech… Continue Reading

Siimpel raises $8.7M for mobile cameras

Siimpel, manufacturer of highly-precise and low-power mobile and digital cameras, took in an $8.7 million tranche of an expected $16 million investment round, according to regulatory filings. Contributors included Qualcomm, Zone Venture Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund, and a handful of individuals.

Earlier this month, the… Continue Reading

Roundup: More cuts at Yahoo, food cuts at Google and more

Roundup: More cuts at Yahoo, food cuts at Google and more

Here’s the latest action:

More job cuts coming at Yahoo? — Chief executive Jerry Yang has hired consultants from Bain to get the organization “fit.” It’s not likely that means more exercise. SAI has more.

More food benefits slashed at Google – While Yahoos may be losing their… Continue Reading

Capturing the scene at the SD Visionary Awards

Capturing the scene at the SD Visionary Awards

Once a year venture capitalist Heidi Roizen and her husband Dave Mohler open up their Woodside villa to host the SD Forum’s Visionary Awards honoring pioneers of Silicon Valley. Each time I attend, I’m mesmerized by the estate and its furnishings, from the Moroccan guest… Continue Reading

Adobe and Qualcomm BREW up a mobile partnership

Adobe and Qualcomm BREW up a mobile partnership

Adobe has taken another step in its plan for domination of the mobile world — it just announced a partnership that should make it easier to create applications for the Adobe Flash runtime in Qualcomm’s BREW mobile software platform.

This partnership is presumably part of Adobe’s… Continue Reading

Roundup: More earnings reports, accelerating emissions, Russian censorship and more

Roundup: More earnings reports, accelerating emissions, Russian censorship and more

Here’s the latest action:

More earnings info — While we wrote earlier about Microsoft’s earnings, plenty of other companies are posting theirs, too. Motorola disclosed that its market share is down to 9.5 percent, while Qualcomm’s profit is up. Amazon’s Q1 profits rose 30 percent, Nintendo… Continue Reading

Juice Wireless, offering mobile content sharing, gets more funding

Juice Wireless, offering mobile content sharing, gets more funding

Juice Wireless, a company that lets you send photos, videos and other content to your social network pages from your mobile phone, has been on a rocky ride.

Not only does it face plenty of competition, but it changed tack a year ago and laid off… Continue Reading

Roundup: Planet Google crowded, Verizon backs off, and more

Roundup: Planet Google crowded, Verizon backs off, and more

Here’s the latest action:
1) Google facing employee overload
2) Verizon Wireless abandons legal challenge of FCC rules
3) Qualcomm comes up with competition for WiMAX
4) Could Yahoo finally be giving up social networking?
5) Google’s PageRank changes injure startups, again
And a handful of fundings:
6) Linkstorm raises $4.2 million… Continue Reading